AKRON, Ohio -- A 23-year-old Conneaut man with a history of drug and alcohol abuse was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Akron to four years and three months in prison for setting fire to a predominantly black church.

Ronald Pudder pleaded guilty to damaging a religious building. The charge carried a hate crime designation, which meant he was subjected to a stiffer sentence.

Pudder initially denied torching the First Azusa Apostolic Faith Church of God in Conneaut in May, but later admitted to the crime after a security video showed him buying gas shortly before the early-morning fire.

He poured gasoline on three doors of the only black church in a mostly white area, before setting them on fire. Firefighters put out the fire before the interior of the church was harmed.

Police had seen Pudder driving past the church shortly after the fire. They stopped him on an unrelated matter. He wasn't wearing a shirt and the car smelled of gas.

In a statement to police, Pudder said that on the night of the crime he had been drinking and snorting Percocet. Pudder also admitted that he sent an e-mail message to a friend that said he was going to burn down a church and that he was going to kill a black person. He later told another friend that he had burned a church.

Conneaut is a city of about 12,000 in Ashtabula County, roughly an hour east of Cleveland. The city's population is about 96 percent white, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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